Jack Basset is a reporter for a major daily with a
particular talent for sniffing out good stories. His current assignment is to
find out why an assassin murdered a US Senator a year before. Jack finagles a
meeting with the prisoner (who refuses to meet or talk with anybody with the
exception of one man) by having guards tell the prisoner that the one person he
will meet with is waiting to see him. Jack leaves the meeting with precious
little, and soon learns that the prisoner, the prison guard, and Jack’s editor
have all been killed. Realizing that he’s probably next, Jack scurries to
protect his family and self just as the assassination team arrives at his
house.
Sons of Cain by C.W.
Burgett is a thriller involving a secret society determined to advance to the
white house. The writer goes out of his way to avoid strong language and sexual
situations. Unfortunately that doesn’t always work to keep the reader engaged.
In one particularly grating scene, a nurse who has been helping Jack attempts
to seduce him only to have her advances rebuffed by the hero who wishes to
remain faithful to his wife. The seduction is clumsy, ill-timed, and comes out
of nowhere. It reads like the fantasy of a twelve year old boy, like the Heavy Metal
seduction scene Kenny imagines in that one episode of South Park.
The novel opens strongly. The first chapter is particularly
well written and fast paced. However, the rest of the book doesn’t live up to
that opening chapter. In fact, the difference is so noticeable that it’s as if
the writer gave the novel to a professional who edited the first chapter on
spec and then quoted a price for the remainder which Burgett was unwilling to
pay. For example, the writer has a habit of using proper names when a pronoun
would have worked better. He also uses a simple vocabulary with
three-dollar-words interjected pell-mell. (See what I did there?)
Burgett has obviously seen more thriller movies and learned
their lessons than he has read thriller novels to learn theirs. Burgett’s
desire to write uplifting Christian lit is also evident in the sparse narration.
This is a story with a message when a story with a story would have been
better. Actually, to be fair, the story itself is actually very well crafted
and clever. It would make a decent TNT movie starring Lorenzo Lamas.
Excerpt
Jack read the passage and looked up at Keith for an explanation. Keith smiled at Jack before responding to the unspoken question.
“Basically, it puts forth an alternative view of Cain. It says that when God made Cain into a nomad, he vowed that death would be his legacy. He spent the rest of his life pitting tribe against tribe and brother against brother. He taught his children to cause war as a means of gaining the spoils.
“It claims that almost every major war can be traced back to the group that Timothy belongs to--they call themselves The Sons of Cain. Alexander the Great, Napoleon, even Abraham Lincoln were all members of this organization.”
Jack flipped through the pages and found that what started merely as names, turned into signatures on the left and typed out names on the right. Jack could not help but stop and stare at one name in particular.
A few years back, Jack had written an article that had required reading of many of this man’s writings, thus becoming very familiar with the handwriting. There was no doubting it: the signature of Adolph Hitler.
“That night, I took the book home and read it. To me, it seemed extremely interesting--it sounded like a group of businessmen that had the foresight to prepare themselves to reap the benefits of war. Frankly, that sounded right up my alley. “At first, I didn’t believe all of the Cain stuff, but over time and research, I have concluded that it must be true. The next day I met with Tim again. After I told him I liked what I had read, he pulled out this book.”
Keith pulled another folder out of the bag. This one was similar to the first, but smaller.
Keith smiled and opened the folder to the first page without saying a word.
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